BA boss 'will not walk out over T5'

He also said the departures of BA operations director Gareth Kirkwood and customer service director David Noyes were "a regrettable development" and that T5 would eventually become "a great place from which to fly".

The two executives have effectively been sacked for the T5 shambles which saw dozens of flights cancelled and thousands of bags go astray.

In the days that followed the disastrous opening of the terminal, Mr Walsh said that the buck stopped with him, he accepted responsibility and that there was no merit in trying to apportion blame.

But last week BA announced that Mr Kirkwood and Mr Noyes were leaving.

Writing in this week's edition of the airline's in-house journal British Airways News, Mr Walsh said: "While there have been calls for me to step down, I have made it clear that I will not walk away.

"We all have a job to do to recover from the bitter disappointment of the opening day at T5. I am taking responsibility for sorting out the problems."

He continued: "We have talked about putting our people and our customers at the heart of our business. Now we must make it happen, creating a new culture with a renewed focus on performance and accountability.

"I took the decision this week to create a new position of chief operations officer to bring together all aspects of our operation, both in the air and on the ground.

"As a result of this Gareth Kirkwood ands David Noyes have left the airline. This has been a regrettable development. Both Gareth and David have served the airline well for many years and I would like to thank them for their significant contribution."